I have good news about two of our colleagues, Tim Kearns and Mike Miller.

Tim, who has served us so well for nearly six years as Vice Provost for Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer, has been longing to return to the Computer Science faculty, and will do so this summer. He is eagerly looking forward to teaching and pursuing research in computational neuroscience.

I’m very grateful to Tim for his dedication to managing the CSU dictates as well as any human being could. Under Tim’s leadership ITS has made significant progress by working more closely with constituents across the campus to better understand their IT needs and delivering solutions that meet those needs. I’m especially grateful that he postponed his return to the faculty this past year at my request.

Mike Miller, Dean of the Library, has agreed to take on the additional duties of overseeing ITS and merging the two into one division, Information Services.

These two worlds have been merging more every year, and the proliferation of digital resources makes this an ideal time to bring these units together. I also believe there are true synergies to be found over time, and in this current budget climate, that is an opportunity we cannot afford to overlook.

Tim and Mike were the inspiration for this merger. They have worked together on a number of projects and have frequently examined better ways to improve the delivery of information-related services to the campus, especially for academic technology.

Besides his library experience, Miller has degrees in Information Science and Interactive Telecommunications and has worked extensively with IT and academic technology people at Stanford University and the University of Michigan. Miller will become the new CIO effective mid-July.

Join me in congratulating Tim and Mike -- and please join me in helping make the merged division a real success story over the long haul.